Linda and I spontaneously decided to go to NYC this past weekend, so I decided to do a race while there. The only thing going on was a 123 event at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. We were staying in Manhattan and I did not realize just how far away this race was, but it took me at least an hour to get there.

Anyway, below is an aerial of the course. The orange arrow represents the wind which proved to be too much for me, and the S/F is the straight near the base of the arrow. We rode clockwise six times around the larger blue loop (which was about 2.3 miles) and then 11 times around the shorter blue loop.

Right from the gun, there were attacks and the pace was brutal, sort of like the drives ride when you are near the front. On the backside, they were crushing it at 30-33 mph and then also hard into the headwind sections and then when you came thru the S/F with the wind hitting you on the side, there was nowhere to hide. In lap 2, a group of 3 got away a bit, and a chase group formed with...

For once a race that was close to home, a mere 30 minute drive. However, due to competition from another crit in NJ, the turnout was not a big as one could hope for so the 45+ and 55+ field were combined. This was a four corner crit, on a .74 mile course.

The officials noted some obstacles to us, but since the field size was small, not a big deal. The race began uphill on Franklin, right turn, then flattened out on Filmore, downward into turn 2 and downhill on South into the only really fast turn onto Grant, then a low grade climb up Grant and Franklin. So, the course had potential to drop riders quickly, even with a small field.

Right away, Marty was at the front and keeping the pace high for the first few laps. On lap 3 or 4, Kieth Davies attacks at the start of the false flat/climb and I jump on his wheel. After all, he did win this the prior year and can definitely ride away...

This was the first time a bunch of the new team had a chance to race together. We had 7 guys in the race including myself, Joe M, Grimmy, Joe H, John P, Tom N, & Ryan M. The course was freshly paved, had eight turns, one of which was a 180, and not much wind to speak of, so it made for a fast day. My only complaint about the course was that coming off turn 8 there was only about 150 M to the finish and position on that turn decided the outcome. In the regular laps, the stretch between 7 & 8 was only one lane wide. On the bell lap, they did pull the cones near turn 8 to allow for a wider approach, but I think the entire stretch between turns 7 & 8 should have been cone free for the final lap.
There were lots of strong riders in the race and I thought that with all of the turns, somebody would surely get away. As a team, we did a great job of having someone in every break attempt and always had guys on or near the front in good position. During the practice lap, it seemed like plenty of distance between...

As far as Lancaster courses go, this was less hilly than usual. There were a few hills, but each was short enough to power over without killing me and a 300M false flat to the finish. Approaching the final turn there was a slightly technical section that was much easier to roll through from the front than within the field.

We lined up with me apparently in 2nd place overall for the Pennsy Spring Classics (Union Grove / Mount Joy / Farmersville) a few points behind Mike Zban from Thru-It-All. A surprise entrant in our race was Ramon Benitez and Joey P was assigned to watch his wheel. David H and I were going to cover early breaks and then start attacking in laps 2 onward (5 laps total for about 32 miles). After the first lap, the best place to seemed to be on the hill which soonafter became a good downhill that you could wind out.

All of the early breaks were covered quickly and in lap 2 I took off after the hill and got a gap with Zban right on my wheel. We went a few miles but he did not seem committed...

Even though we had been seeing great temperatures in prior weeks, we caught a cold day at the 2010 Union Grove road race. Start temperatures were in the low 30s and you know how much I dread the cold. David and I lined up near the front of the small field of about 30 riders (9 were from Thru-It-All…formerly Spinners, hereafter TIA) and we were off. The course is a rolling 4.6 loop with a metal bridge crossing, a few technical sections, and two small hills, one of which crests about 100m from the finish.

David was sitting in the top 5 positions for mostly the entire race, and taking pulls when he had to, but there were riders from Kelly and TSV who were content to spend a lot of time on the front setting the pace, so we let them. On the 3rd lap of 7, we took the...

I have been feeling strong lately….now that my blood supply is back to normal levels, and I am still trying to gets the legs used to suffering, so I did the 35+ & 45+ back-to-back at the Zeppelin crit in Lakehurst, NJ. The course had a nice technical section... 90 degree right, into a 90 degree left, into almost a U-turn which caused those at the back of the field to have serious problems.

I did the 35+ first and 2 guys got away in the 2nd lap. Sadly, even though there were at least 3 well-represented teams, with only one having a guy in the break, nobody was making any efforts to bring them back. I was content to make it a workout and there were two other solo guys who were clearly interested in trying to get away as well. Anyway, we pounded it enough thru the turns and into the fast sections to shell 1/2 the field.

Twice i tried to solo bridge over to the break, which seemed like the...

First, thanks to the very hospitable town of Millersburg. The people there were supportive, there were a ridiculous number of volunteers and all of the races went off smoothly. This was a 3 stage race, TT, cit and road race over 2 days.

Now, normally I have a decent TT (given my age, my inability to quit drinking wine, my excessive bodyweight, my lack of real power, etc). I got in a good warmup for once, had a decent night's sleep, but still managed to pull off a horrible TT run. This course was one I would normally like.. nice and flat. But as I have been doing lately, I went out way too hard on the first half, but was in the zone and looking at the pavement in front of me when one of the spotters yelled out "Turn Coming!". I look up and see the turnaround 20 yds ahead and hit it at almost full tilt. needless to say, I messed that up. I then got into oxygen debt and was very panied to look down at my watts and see I was only pushing about 80% of LT, but couldn't make the legs do any more. And, to make matters worse, I didn;t recognize the little climb to the finish and downshifted instead of powering over it, so lost even more time there. Some days, you really do suck, eh? I ended up 14th, but thankfully, Marty had a good run and positioned himself in 6th.